-

since it was mostly surrounded by a noisy crowd, whose filthy language disturbed the ear by day and night. M. Eugène Pottet, assisted by M. Tixier, the director of the Maison de Justice,

not the whole Conciergerie itself was vast enough to afford space for the ghosts of the multitudinous victims of Robespierre. What may have been the fears, the thoughts, the torments of the wretch in those last hours ? tried to identify this first cell, but When the tumbril arrived at Robes- found the task impossible. It seems pierre's house in the Rue St. Honoré, clear that her first cell was one of the it was stopped while deliriously excited worst in the Conciergerie, and was in women danced a mad ronde of joy the worst part of the prison. Close around it; and a child sprinkled the outside it were clamor, blasphemy, disstones of Duplay's house with blood. turbance, and the reek of the smoking The Jacobins were swept aside by a of turnkeys. The removal of the poor torrent of human joy. Fouquier dis- queen to somewhat better quarters was charged his office against his old master probably due to the humanity of the and patron; and Sanson, sublimely in- concierge. After l'affaire de l'œillet, in different to his patients, let fall the which the Chevalier de Rougeville fatal knife upon the neck of the man tried to effect the escape of the queen, who had given him so much employ- and would have succeeded but for an ment. accident which led to discovery, Richard was temporarily deposed, and Bault reigned in his stead as concierge.

According to Mercier (Le Nouveau Paris), Paris, during the gloomy Terror, had even ceased to dance, except occasionally round the scaffold. After the fall of Robespierre, there were " vingt-trois théâtres, dix-huit cent bals ouverts tous les jours." There were bals à la victime, bals d'hiver; and so great was the popular delight at returning to the dance, that "on danse aux Carmes; on danse au Noviciat des Jésuites; on danse au Couvent des Carmélites; on danse au Séminaire Saint-Sulpice. On danse encore dans chaque guingette des Boulevards, aux Champs-Elysées, le long des ports!" -a truly national way of expressing the return of joy for the removal of the bloody gloom of the Terror. The furies gave place to the merveilleuses, and. dandies replaced sans-culottes. Vive la joie! Robespierre is dead.

Close to the little cell of Robespierre is another and a larger cell, which is both a dungeon and a shrine. This is le cachot de Marie Antoinette, the cell in which the unhappy queen passed the latest and the longest time of her stay in the Conciergerie. When she arrived, General Custine, the soldiermartyr of the Revolution, was turned out of a cell to make room for l'Autrichienne; and the position of this cell, near the wicket at which prisoners saw their friends, was very disagreeable,

And this is actually the cell of Marie Antoinette ! When the brilliant girl of fifteen was married to the dauphin, afterwards Louis XVI., her mother, Maria Theresa, thought the future of her daughter "le plus brillant qu'on puisse imaginer;" but Maria Theresa never saw, or foresaw, the dismal cell that we have visited. When Madame Roland, who bitterly hated Marie Antoinette, heard of the shameful indignities offered to the queen at the Tuileries by the mob, the Egeria of the Girondins said, "Que j'aurais voulu voir sa longue humiliation!" She could not look into this cell in order to triumph over the fallen queen, because Egeria had also to tread the red path of the guillotine; but, if she could have done so, she would have seen no humiliation, but an imperial woman, showing a courage as high-hearted as, and even prouder than that of the wife of the virtuous Roland. The daughter of the Cæsars fell from a loftier height than did the daughter of Phlipon, and had to endure a yet deeper misery. The contrast between throne and dungeon was greater than that between l'Hôtel du Ministère and a condemned cell; though to the bitter cup of Madame Roland may have been added the thought that she had fostered that

Dans ce lieu, Marie-Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne d'Autriche, veuve de Louis XVI.,

Revolution which devoured its own | the Jacobins were fully capable of such children, and committed SO many senseless brutality. The altar bears an crimes in the name of Liberty. Saint- inscription in Latin, which is thus renAmand treats the queen and Madame dered into French : Roland as "deux adversaires qui traitent de puissance à puissance." This is a little exaggerated, since Marie An- après la mort de son époux et l'enlèvement toinette had no dealings with the de ses enfants, fut jetée en prison et y woman who demanded "deux têtes demeura 76 jours dans les anxiétés, dans le illustres ;" but Saint-Amand speaks deuil et dans l'abandon. Mais appuyée more truly of the "haine vouée par sur son courage, elle se montra, dans les Madame Roland à Marie Antoinette; "fers comme sur le trône, plus grande que a hatred which he attributes, not la fortune. Condamnée à mort par des wholly wrongly, to envy.

scélérats, au moment même du trépas, elle écrivit ici un éternel monument de piété, de courage et de toutes les vertus, le 16

Octobre 1793.

Vous tous qui venez ici, adorez, admirez

et priez.

Few can fail to feel that the cell is yet haunted by the tall figure of the queen, wearing her mourning dress of black caraco, and, under her white cap, bearing the proud, suffering face that Delaroche has painted. Dumb yet The dungeon contains also, though speaking, it bears witness to the un- they seem out of place there, two large manly indignities inflicted upon the modern paintings of no particular solitary and most unhappy woman. merit. The first represents la comAt one end is a heavily barred window, munion de la Reine, painted by Drolling placed high in the wall, which looks in 1817; the other depicts the transfer out if it were possible to look through of the queen from the Temple to the it-upon the courtyard. Marie An- Conciergerie. The second is by Pajou, toinette was placed in solitary confine- and was painted also in 1817. The ment, and did not mix with the other latter comprises portraits, or fancy renprisoners, among whom she would derings, of Simon and his wife; the have found many a friend, though former includes likenesses of M. some of the sans-culottes détenus ad- Magnin, Mademoiselle Fouché, and of dressed insults to her window. The two gendarmes. The cell is longer wretched place it was specially damp than its breadth. The window has, and cold is full of memories of the they say, been enlarged. "Que la nuit discrowned but yet most regal woman, parait longue à la douleur qui veille!" who had to bear her woes alone, with- And what weary nights must Marie out the solace of human companionship Antoinette have passed in this bare or sympathy. On the right of the cell, with the prospect of a terrible dismal dungeon, looking towards the death always before her imagination! window, stood the queen's bed, an She suffered specially from two dreads: ordinary small prison bed of sangle. one that she would be assassinated in An attendant slept in the cell; and the cell; the other that, if taken to behind a paravent, or folding screen, execution, she would be torn to pieces were placed two gendarmes. There is now no furniture in the room; but there is the crucifix which she used before leaving for the scaffold; and there is an altar, which was erected by Louis XVIII. to the memory of the murdered queen. In entering the cell it is necessary to stoop, and it is said that this door was made lower in order to compel her Majesty to bow her head before the Revolution. The chiefs of

by the mob. It needed almost superhuman courage to bear up against such ghastly apprehensions. Then, too, she was distracted by the thoughts of her children, and she knew into what hands the young dauphin had fallen. She spent seventy-six days in the Conciergerie, coming there from the Temple on the night of the 2nd of August, 1793, and leaving it for her execution on the 16th of October, 1793.

her medical assistance.

She was in no way dangerous to the | from hæmorrhoids, but there is no Revolution; and even the leaders of record of any attempt to procure for the Jacobins hesitated for some time to Her jewels take her life. The king was dead; the were taken from her, and even the dauphin was being debased and slowly watch which she had brought with her killed; they had nearly all they could from Vienna. The loss of the watch, want, and they had destroyed the direct specially dear as it was through its line of monarchs. The king's brothers associations with her youth, cost the were out of reach, and widowed Marie | poor queen many silent tears. But she Antoinette might safely have been suffered no word of complaint at this allowed to retreat to Austria; but or any other insult to pass her lips. Robespierre could refuse nothing that After she had been dethroned Marie might please the Jacobins. The people Antoinette became most truly queenly. did not desire her death, but as Riouffe All the levities of her day of glory and said, "La France était donc sourde temptation had been burnt and purged et muette; muette sur les actes d'un away, and sorrow and suffering rengouvernement dont elle ne connaissait dered her in every respect more noble. bien que l'ombrageuse et terrible puis-She was thirty-eight when she was exesance . . . l'humanité a été plus de- cuted. It would seem that, from her gradée en France pendant un an (l'an entry into the prison till the day of 11 de la République) qu'elle ne l'est en her death, she was never allowed to Turquie depuis cent ans." leave her cell. It is a little difficult to imagine the sad-eyed queen moving among the spectral, shifting crowd in the yard; but she would at least have found there the consolation of woman's priceless tenderness. As it was, she was alone with sorrow.

The incarceration of the queen was attended by all the cruelty which belonged to that godless and inhuman time. She suffered severely from cold, and had to use her meagre pillow to warm her feet. Madame Bault, touched by the courteous dignity and sad sufferings of the captive, applied to Fouquier-Tinville for more coverings for the queen's bed, or rather for the bed of the Veuve Capet, but the heartless wretch replied, "How dare you ask for such a thing? You yourself deserve to be sent to the guillotine for doing so." The clothes of the unfortunate lady, whose life had been accustomed to splendor, were miserable, worn, and insufficient. No lookingglass was allowed; but in her pity for the queen, Rosalie Lamorlière - the hearts of all the women in attendance upon the prisoner were more or less softened towards her-procured a little common mirror, bought on the Quay for twenty-five sols d'assignats, and gave it to the queen of France, who used it up to and upon the day of her death. When Marie Antoinette reached her last prison, she looked thin, weak, worn; her hair had grown grey at the temples, and her sight was enfeebled. One eye was indeed of but little use to her. She suffered much

The personal attendants upon the imprisoned queen were one Larivière, a woman of eighty ("une espèce de poissarde dont elle se plaignait fort," says Gaulot), a young woman named Harel, and Rosalie Lamorlière, who became profoundly attached to her royal mistress. The Baults had, in order to please their employers, to hide any pity or sympathy beneath a show of external roughness and rudeness. There was no chimney in the queen's cold cell, which had to contain her, her female attendants, and, close by, two gendarmes. The Revolutionary soldiers "ne sortaient jamais de la chambre, pas même lorsque la Reine avait des besoins ou des soins naturels à se donner." The screen was perforated with holes to facilitate observation. The bed of the queen was afterwards used by Egalité Orléans, who had voted for the death of his cousin the king, and, later, by the Chevalier de Bastion.

The queen appeared for the first time before the Revolutionary Tribunal on October 12, 1793, at 6 P.M. The room

sitting; while, as a background, Jacobin spectators, men and women, crowd round, involuntarily half awed by the courage of the woman who met her doom so calmly.

Until the last days of his tyranny, Robespierre always affected an appearance of legality; and this even when the only law was his own will. For form's sake, the queen was allowed

in which the Tribunal sat is now the première chambre civile, and she ascended to it by a staircase which is now known as l'escalier de la Reine. The place was lit only by two candles. The queen's chief care was to compromise no one by her answers. Her clear, calm replies wanted nothing in dignity, courage, or self-possession. The second examination and trial took place on October 14. Hermann was the counsel. She had two, Chauveaupresident; Fouquier-Tinville, the accu- Lagarde and Tronçon-Ducoudray, and sateur public; Fabricius, the greffier. they, well knowing that the case was The jury it is well to hand the names decided in advance, put forward such down to infamy was composed of pleas as they dared to urge. On leavGannay, perruquier; Martin Nicolas, ing the tribunal to return to her cell, imprimeur; Châtelet, peintre; Grenier Marie Antoinette was conducted by a Crey, tailleur; Autonelle, ex-député; lieutenant of gendarmes, De Busne, Souberbidle, chirurgien; Trinchard, and she said, “I can hardly see where menuisier; Jourdeuil, ex-huissier; Ge- I am going.' In her cell she was mon, Davez, Suard. They were all allowed pen and paper, and wrote that paid hirelings, furious Jacobins, and long farewell letter to Madame Elisamortally afraid of Fouquier-Tinville. beth which was given to FouquierThe accusation was merely a violent Tinville, and by him to Couthon, statement of loose, floating prejudice; amongst whose papers it was found. but Hermann called the queen "cette At five o'clock in the morning of Octomoderne Médicis." She said, with ber 16, 1793, the rappel was beaten in lofty eloquence, "J'étais reine, et vous all the sections, and by seven o'clock m'avez detrônée. J'étais épouse, et the armed force designed to guard the vous avez fait périr mon mari. J'étais road between the Palais and the scafmère, et vous m'avez arraché mes en-fold was ready.

last time.

fants. Il ne me reste que mon sang; At eight o'clock, Rosalie assisting, abreuvez-vous en; mais ne me faites the queen changed her linen for the pas souffrir plus long-temps." In spite A soldier approached aud of the nervous strain of such a trial, looked on, "Au nom de l'honnêteté, the queen maintained her quiet, digni- permettez que je change de linge sans fied attitude. She made no appeal to temoins!" cried the outraged lady. justice or to mercy; she evinced no "J'ai ordre de ne pas vous quitter de weakness; she showed almost no vis-vue," replied the brutal officer of the ible emotion, except when she repelled Jacobins ; and she had to manage as with noble indignation the foul asper- she could, crouching down upon her sions thrown upon her as a mother. bed, and screened, so far as possible, As a matter of course, the jury found by Rosalie. The honest girl tells us her guilty on all counts, and she re- that the "Comité avait ordonné qu'on ceived sentence of death. It is not lui refusât toute espèce de nourriture," hard to imagine that impressive trial on the morning of the execution; but scene. We know the room, and can it is pleasant to know that a cup easily restore the fatal chamber to its of chocolate, "et un petit pain mistate in October, 1793. Members of gnonette," were supplied by the charity the Revolutionary Tribunal, five judges, of Rosalie and of Mme. Bault. The officials in heavily plumed hats and tricolor sashes, Fouquier-Tinville, Hermann, the squalid jury, the gendarmes, the prisoner, are all seen there, in the dim candle-light, in that long night

Jacobins had no doubt issued their chivalrous order in the hope that the poor, fainting woman might show weakness in the death-cart or on the scaffold, and so disgrace l'Autrichienne;

66

but their base intent was frustrated. | to the cart, she saw several of the other Robespierre and Fouquier-Tinville were prisoners in the Conciergerie, and took doubtless behind the cruel order. a farewell of them. The queen asked At ten o'clock the turnkey, Lari- for a drink of water; and one prisoner, vière, was sent by the concierge into Madame Caron, brought her a cup of the cell, and to him we owe some cold water. That cup is now preserved knowledge of what passed there. She as a precious relic in the family of the said to him sadly, "Larivière, vous Comte de Reiset. She drew near to savez qu'on va me faire mourir. Dites the grim office, on her way to the portal à votre respectable mère" (the fish- at which a tumbril, drawn by a white wife could not have been present) horse, awaited her. "Voilà le moment que je la remercie de ses soins, et de montrer du courage," said M. que je la charge de prier Dieu pour Girard. Her proud reply still echoes moi." Three judges, accompanied by through the history of the Conciergerie: the greffier Fabricius, entered the cell." Du courage! il y a si long-temps The queen was kneeling in prayer que j'en fais l'apprentissage! Croyez against her little bed, but rose to re- qu'il ne m'en manquera pas aujourd' ceive the functionaries. They told her hui ? " to attend, as her sentence was to be She was once more in the fresh, read to her. She replied, in a firm open air, and mounted the cart with voice, "Such a reading is useless; I difficulty, owing to her bound arms. know the sentence only too well." She appeared calm, and indifferent to They insisted and the clerk read the the cruel cries of the mob. Near document. At that moment Henri Saint-Roch she was foully insulted; Sanson appeared, a young man of but at the angle of the Rue Royale, the gigantic stature. He said roughly to Abbé Puget, attired as a layman, but the poor woman, "Hold out your recognizable by her, managed, to her hands." Her Majesty retreated a step, infinite comfort, to convey to her absoand pleaded that the king had not been lution in articulo mortis. The scaffold bound. "Fais ton devoir," cried the was not erected exactly where that of judges to Sanson. "O mon Dieu!" Louis XVI. had stood. It was placed cried the wretched queen. She thought" du côté des Tuileries, à trente mètres that she was then and there to be assas-environ du piédestal sur lequel on avait sinated. Sanson roughly seized the élevé une statue de la Liberté." By shrinking hands, and tied them, with cruel force, too tight behind her back. She looked up to heaven, and tried to restrain her tears. Her hair, when cut off, Sanson thrust into his pocket, and it was burnt in the vestibule. So far the evidence of Larivière.

Marie Antoinette was dressed in a white peignoir, which usually served her for a morning-gown, and wore a fichu de mousseline, crossed over her breast. On her head was a little plain white linen cap. On that morning, when about to rejoin her husband, she would wear no mourning. A Constitutional priest, M. Girard, Curé de Saint-Landry, was appointed to attend her; but she refused his ministrations. All was ready, and she looked round her cell for the last time. As she passed along the corridors, on her way

accident, she trod on Sanson's foot, and, in spite of the terrors of the moment, the instinct of a lady impelled her to apologize to the executioner. When mounting the steps of the scaf fold, she lost a shoe, which was picked up and sold for a louis. So long as it was possible, her eyes were raised to heaven. The bascule dropped, the knife fell, and the executioner held up the head to show it to the mob.

Next comes another vision of a woman's figure, clad also in white, standing high on that gory scaffold, the very planks of which were saturated with blood. This one had, it is said, asked on her arrival at the scaffold, for pen and paper to write down her last impressions, the last thoughts of that dark hour. Goethe regretted that the opportunity was not afforded her, be